First time’s the charm! That seems to be the cast for Babak Anvari; ‘Under the Shadows’ is the first film he’s written and before it even premiered at Sundance, it was picked up by Netflix!

Director Babak Anvarijoined actors Narges Rashidi and Bobby Naderi in a sit-down all about how the new chilling movie Under the Shadows came about — and revealed the personal reason it’s set in Iran.

Babek describes the flick as a “psychological thriller slash horror film,” set during the Iran/Iraq war in 1988. “It’s about a mother and daughter. As the Iraqi bombing campaign intensified, the mother starts to believe that their apartment is haunted by an evil spirit,” he explained in an interview at Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 24. “The reason I chose this setting is because I was born in Iran and grew up there, so I was born right in the middle of the war. It sounded like agreat setting for a horror film.”

Narges Rashidi, who plays mother Shideh said that she couldn’t believe how amazing it all felt. “It has so many details. I’ve seen it now three times and still, I discover so many details, working with all these different genres in one movie, and it actually really works out,” she said. “I was very impressed by that.”

Costar Bobby Naderi revealed that he “just fell in love” with the director after they started Skyping while his director was in Jordan.

Under the Shadow was already picked up by Netflix, and the director is still in shock! “It feels amazing,” he said. “I came here and I was like, ‘Cool, I came here, I can just relax and enjoy the festival!”